FCTC: Action Now! Media Releases

When governments established the working group (WG) on sustainable measures for the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2012, FCA immediately started advocating for sufficient resources so that the WG could hold meetings and take other action required to address its mandate.

In addition, FCA developed a series of background documents to support the working group discussions. Our documents addressed the following issues:

Working group mandate and FCTC sustainable measures to date

Mobilisation of resources for tobacco control

Multi-sectoral coordination for tobacco control

International cooperation for tobacco control

All these issues are critical to progress on global tobacco control. The WHO FCTC is an international legal instrument and its implementation depends significantly on active knowledge-sharing and on-going mutual assistance at the international level.

The Convention includes many important provisions that need to be implemented by different parts of governments. For instance, increasing taxes on tobacco products requires ministries of health and finance to coordinate their efforts. Similarly, promoting economically viable alternatives for tobacco growers can be done only when health and agriculture departments work hand in hand.

Effective implementation of the FCTC in any country cannot be achieved without a well-staffed and funded tobacco control office. Sufficient resources – human, financial and technical – are essential to address the tobacco epidemic.